POPPING Pat Metheny gets deep into vintage Top 40 on solo acoustic guitar at Somerville Theatre on October 9.

As usual, there's too much to choose from. Here are some highlights, but there's always more at jazzboston.org.

BERKLEE BEANTOWN JAZZ FESTIVAL | September 23-25 | Created 11 years ago by South End restaurateur and jazz enthusiast Darryl Settles, the BeanTown fest under the auspices of Berklee has grown to encompass a long weekend and several ticketed events (including, this year, the band James Farm at Berklee Performance Center on the 23rd, Danilo Pérez at Scullers on the 24th, and Gary Burton at Berklee on the 25th). But the heart of the event is still the free Saturday-afternoon block party with, this year, the Pablo Ablanedo Octet, Marcus Santos and Bloco AfroBrazil, Louis Hayes's Cannonball Legacy Band, P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell, Oleta Adams, Dave Samuels's Caribbean Jazz Project, and more. | Columbus Ave between Burke St and Mass Ave | Noon-6 pm | Free | beantownjazz.org

DARCY JAMES ARGUE SECRET SOCIETY | September 30 | Argue's Secret Society is one of the most exciting jazz orchestras of the last 30 years — right up there with the large ensembles of Mark Harvey (see, Aardvark, below), Maria Schneider, and John Hollenbeck. A former student of Bob Brookmeyer at NEC, Argue matches propulsive rhythms with morphing extended forms — and dry wit, on full display between numbers. | Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston | $25; $20 students and seniors | 800.440.6975 or mfa.org

PAT METHENY | October 9 | You might quibble with Metheny's choices from project to project, but his status as a game-changer in the music — as guitar virtuoso and composer/conceptualizer — are undeniable. His most recent disc, What's It All About (Nonesuch), is his second all-acoustic solo-guitar disc since 2001's One Quiet Night. This time, again using his specially tuned baritone acoustic guitar, he revisits Top 40 classics — from Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach, and Jobim, to Henry Mancini and the Carpenters. At the Somerville Theatre, he'll be joined by the phenomenal acoustic bassist Larry Grenadier | Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville | $35-$45 | 617.424.5200 or somervilletheatreonline.com

FRED HERSCH TRIO AT SCULLERS | March 01, 2013 Fred Hersch's output as a composer includes an orchestrated setting of poems from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass as well as other art-song fare for singers.

THIS SPRING'S JAZZ &AMP; WORLD MUSIC SHOWS | February 28, 2013 The saxophonist Chris Potter started drawing attention when he joined the group of legendary bebop trumpeter Red Rodney as an 18-year-old Manhattan School of Music student.